It is often highly desirable to provide a plurality of items of cutlery and food preparation implements such as knives of various sizes and blade configurations, spatulas, grill scrapers and hamburger turners which are supported in a readily accessible manner to permit convenient selection of a specific implements as required for a particular food preparation operation. Such an assortment of items are desirable in the kitchen and particularly in installations such as meat markets, butcher shops, restaurants and the like wherein continuous cutting and preparing operations take place. In the butcher shop, in particular, where meat is being continuously prepared for consumption, a wide variety of cutlery is generally provided such as trimming and slicing knives. As can be appreciated, it is also highly desirable that those knives, which are in constant use, be kept in a well sharpened and clean condition in order to facilitate efficient and sanitary cutting operations.
In commercial applications where one or more individuals are using knives, they like to keep their knives separate. Too often, the knives are misused, dulled or left with food products on them and then switched with someone else's knives. This produces a lot of contention among employees. The care and cleanliness of implements in food processing locations as well as restaurants is too often very poor.
Knife sharpening service is common in the food handling business where the knives are provided and periodically sharpened or replaced. With this service, an individual must have access to all the knives to pick up the dull knives and replace them with sharp ones. This usually means that the individual who keeps their knives clean and sharp has a difficult time keeping their knives separate, especially if the business is running more than one shift.
Numerous innovations for knife holders have been provided in the prior art that are described as follows. Even though these innovations may be suitable for the specific individual purposes to which they address, they differ from the present application as hereinafter contrasted. The following is a summary of those prior art patents most relevant to the knife locker and sanitization system, as well as a description outlining the difference between the features of the present application and those of the prior art.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,492,028 of John Bourgein describes a wall mounted knife holder which is operatively disposed on a vertical wall and which has an operative position generally parallel to the wall to which it is secured and an operative position in which it is tilted away from the wall whereby in its tilted position cutlery can be withdrawn from the holder without engaging overhead cabinetry.
This patent describes a wall mounted knife holder but does not offer the opportunity of being able to lock separate compartments for the knives while still being able to unlock all the compartments at one time. It does not deal with the sanitizing capability of the knife locker and sanitizing system in any way.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,245,756 of Robin S. Howell et al. tells of a lockable knife and block assembly having a knife block with a plurality of slots for housing a plurality of knife blades. Each knife blade is provided with a notch for engaging a spring-loaded locking and latching means located at the top and front of each slot. A spring-loaded biasing means is positioned at the bottom and front of each slot to bias a blade entering a respective slot toward the spring-loaded latching means. A push button release mechanism is attached to each locking and latching means for disengaging a knife blade latched thereto.
This patent describes a lockable knife container that is opened by the means of a push button release mechanism. It does not work with a conventional pad lock to be opened with a key. It is just a container for a single set of knives and does not have the sanitizing capability.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,490,607 of Wen-Hsiung Hsieh et al. discloses a knife holder that includes a board having a rib laterally formed on the front surface and having two cavities formed in the rear surface for receiving magnets which may attach the knife holder to a metal surface. A case includes a rear panel and two flanges extended rearward from the rear panel for engaging with the front surface of the board. The rear panel and the rib form a slot for receiving and for protecting the knife blade. The knife blades may be completely received and protected between the board and the case.
This patent discloses a conventional knife holder with magnets to hold it in place. It has been designed for home use and not to be used in a commercial application.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,079,108 of Chin-Chih Lin describes a knife holder that has a hollow casing, a positioning plate disposed in the hollow casing, and a base plate disposed on a bottom of the hollow casing. The base plate has a periphery recess. The positioning plate has a center hole, an oblong aperture, and a plurality of slot apertures. An oblong hole is formed on a top portion of the hollow casing. A plurality of slot apertures are formed on the top portion of the hollow casing. A post extends downward from the top portion of the hollow casing. The post has a threaded end inserted in the center hole and fastened by a nut. The hollow casing has a periphery flange engaging with the periphery recess.
This patent describes a kitchen knife holder made from a variety of scented thermoplastics with a fan and an electro thermal device to prevent the interior of the holder from being moist. It does not have the individual locker compartments or the sanitizing capability.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,643,949 of Lin Wen Yen tells of a heat-drying knife holder that includes a heat-generating member installed in a knife groove base of a knife holder consisting of a front shell and a rear shell and an upper cover having a plurality of insert holes for knives to insert. A knife groove base with open knife grooves are fitted in the shell body and has a pull-push water-collecting tray provided at the bottom. A fundamental base is positioned under the shell body and is collapsible for convenience of being placed on a flat surface or on a table. The heat-generating member is installed in the knife groove base and a cement resistor or an electric-heating tube or an electric-heating rod can be used as the heat-generating member to generate heat energy for heat-drying the knife blades inserted in the knife grooves.
This patent describes a heat drying knife holder for a single set of knives, but does not have the unique multiple capabilities of the knife locker and sanitizing system.
Patent Publication No. 2003/0066971 of Lin Wen Yen discloses a disinfecting device of a knife holder, which discloses the use of an ultraviolet disinfecting lamp secured in a knife groove base of a knife holder consisting of a front shell and a rear shell and an upper cover. The upper cover has a plurality of insert holes provided spaced apart for knives to insert therein. A knife groove base having an open knife groove inside is fitted in the shell body and has a pull-push water-collecting tray fitted at a bottom side. Then, a fundamental base is positioned under the shell body and is collapsible for facilitating to be placed on a surface or on a table. An ultraviolet lamp is fixedly installed at a lower portion inside the knife groove base and covered around by a protective shade to prevent water from seeping in. The ultraviolet light of the ultraviolet lamp shines into the knife grooves and disinfects the knife blades therein.
This patent describes the use of an ultraviolet within a knife holder for disinfecting knives therein, but does not have the unique multiple capabilities of the knife locker and sanitizing system, even when the present invention is combined with an ultraviolet light for the purpose of sanitization of knives within the system.
None of these previous efforts, however, provides the benefits attendant with the present application. The present knife locker and sanitizing system achieves its intended purposes, objects and advantages over the prior art devices through a new, useful and unobvious combination of method steps and component elements, with the use of a minimum number of functioning parts, at a reasonable cost to manufacture, and by employing readily available materials.
In this respect, before explaining at least one embodiment of the knife locker and sanitizing system in detail it is to be understood that the design is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangement, of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The knife locker and sanitizing system is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways.
In addition, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting. As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception, upon which this disclosure is based, may readily be utilized as a basis for designing of other structures, methods and systems for carrying out the several purposes of the present design. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent construction insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present application.